Building Maintenance Facility Design

Contents

Primary Guidance

Optimize the functional requirements identified for only the needs of a 20-year horizon.

Support best practices for minimizing operations costs and energy consumption.

Should be located on site to optimize yard operations and site access.

Support sustainability best practices for long-term cost benefits.

Discussion

Maintenance facilities are an essential part of a transportation system and come at a significant capital cost. How these facilities are designed influence the entire Maryland transportation network’s daily operating costs. Design should consider site and buildings.

Early program development should consider end user efficiencies and maintaining operations during construction and upon completion.

Construction must be designed and phased to allow the TBU to maintain operations at all times.

Surrounding communities should be engaged early in the site consideration process.

New Sites

Consider a relatively flat site with sufficient utility service availability such as power, water, and sewer as well as a suitable outfall for storm drains and stormwater management to minimize capital costs.

Should have sufficient highway/roadway access to allow for efficient vehicle and equipment deliveries. Highway/roadway access should not be susceptible to flooding.

Optimize Access to the Transportation Network

Optimize access to provide the most efficient response to incidents and minimize non-productive time when accessing work areas during normal operations. Each TBU must evaluate unique requirements such as:

Center of lane miles (or service area) for highway maintenance operations.

Minimize dead-head runs, facilitate easy and efficient access to main operating lines and service routes, and minimize other operational inefficiencies for transit systems

Airfield access for airport activities.

Proximity to residential access.

Buildings Considerations

Operating Costs

Design to provide efficient and reliable service and minimize system operating costs. Daily and long-term operations should be evaluated with other existing facilities to leverage efficiencies and create best value for the system as a whole. Buildings must be able to function in all adverse conditions 24/7. Daylighting and use of energy saving devices such as energy efficient lighting, timers, and dimmers are encouraged to minimize operating costs.

Materials

A 50-year life cycle for materials of building construction. Pre-engineered buildings could be considered if a high block foundation is used to separate the metal building from corrosive materials on the site.

Space layout should optimize efficiency and functionality of operation. Locker room, shower, toilet facilities, kitchen space, and multipurpose shared space for resting and dining is a minimum requirement to maintain operations under all conditions.

Consider areas needed and office space for managerial functions. Inventory should be located adjacent to useage and should be secured. Parts storage, retrieval systems, and delivery of inventory, and withdrawal of inventory should be optimized.

Arrange functions for safe, continuous, and efficient flow in order to reduce equipment and personnel down time.

For rolling equipment, forward (through) moves are preferred to reverse movements. Balancing flow with flexibility and shop functionality is encouraged to minimize cost. For instance, some reverse moves may be acceptable based on functionality, and can result in reduced capital or operating cost.

Maintenance personnel should be consulted in designing the work space layout to understand how to optimize the number and distribution of storage elements such as bins, racks, pallets, along with tool boxes and workbenches.

Use the operating plan (such as lane miles of roads) for fleet size and type to establish number of maintenance bays and size facility.

Optimizing program by stacking of office space such as administrative and personnel support functions to reduce overall footprint. Shape structure and building envelope to fit operation and minimize excess volume.

Clustering underground support functions such as pits and tank farms to minimize environmental impact and capital costs.

Pre-engineered or other cost effective building enclosures to minimize capital costs.

Low maintenance materials and finishes to minimize maintenance costs.

LEED methodologies if they result in long-term cost savings. LEED methodologies may be incorporated even if LEED Certification is not pursued.

Security

Can vary depending on surroundings, risks, and potential threats (theft, homeland security, sabotage). MPA, MTA, and MAA may have greater with homeland security risks depending on use of the maintenance building. Access control and closed circuit television (CCTV) systems should be applied as necessary inside and outside of the facility. Remote facilities may not have IT access available, and the cost of extending IT availability may not be practical.

Exterior cameras:

Focused on facility entrances to observe individuals entering and exiting the building.

One camera may be used to monitor multiple entrances if the resultant resolution is adequate to distinguish general identity features including apparel, height, build and race.

Camera resolution is not suitable for facial recognition unless justified by a threat and vulnerability assessment (TVA).

Shall not be used for perimeter detection or parking lot surveillance unless justified by a TVA.

Interior cameras:

Only to monitor interior features with high security concerns (justified by missing high cost, easily portable inventory investigations) such as material or tool storage rooms or rooms having a retail component.

Shall not be used soley to monitor employees.

May assist law enforcement during an active shooter event.

Access control card readers shall be used on entrances to the building and only on doors leading to rooms having high security concerns such as material or tool storage rooms or rooms having a retail component.

Fencing should be provided at the perimeter of the facility with limited entrance/egress gates.

Gates needed for efficient flow of operations are required.

TBU Specific Needs

MTA

The building design should maintain, store, and deploy vehicles (rail or bus) efficiently to support the Transit System’s service plan.

Sufficient circulation and queing space is needed on the site for initial loading and staging activities to be prepared for a storm.

Queing needs vary from site to site depending on the ability to stage trucks in the field at the beginning of a storm and other salt structure locations in a county that may be used for initial filling and staging.

Washbays to remove corrosive materials from equipment to prolong equipment life and clear accumulated debris to perform repairs during a storm.

Vacuum Truck dewatering stations may be required to support inlet cleaning operations and comply with state regulations.